US, Britain & France launch air strikes in Syria

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The United States, Britain, and France's forces hit Syria with air strikes early on Saturday in response to a poison gas attack that killed dozens of people last week.

The United States Defense Secretary James Mattis on Friday said the air strikes on targets in Syria were a "one time shot" to send a strong message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Mattis was speaking during a Pentagon media briefing announced the military action from the White House.

Trump's Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, said during the Pentagon briefing that Friday's strikes were different from the ones in April of 2017 which had targeted the "aircraft associated" with a suspected Syrian chemical attack on civilians at the time.

"This evening, we conducted strikes with two allies on multiple sites that will result in a long-term degradation of Syria's capability to research, develop and deploy chemical and biological weapons," Dunford said.